26 Weeks - How it's Going

Sorry for the delay in actual pregnancy updates... several of you have asked. With my husband sitting shiva, it's been hard to get real time to post anything significant. Things have mostly been okay, but have been a bit up and down. It seems like every time I want to post "Yesterday was a really good day" I end up having a really crappy day, so then I need to post "Yesterday was a really crappy day" except then things turn back around, so I just can't keep it all straight. ;) This is not an entirely bad thing.

The good news is that the up and down is largely confined to the contraction side of things. This is good news primarily because of the terbutaline pump. There's a lot of leeway in how I can deal with dosages on the pump (or rather, how the nurses at Matria, the monitoring company, can deal with dosages). They have a lot of leeway in the doctors' orders in terms of giving additional "demand doses" or changing basal rates or auto-dose rates. So we've been playing around a lot with that. We've increased my basal rate twice and yesterday increased my auto-dose rate by 10%, but there's more wiggle room still if that doesn't work.

What's been tending to happen is that I go a day or a day and a half with no, or only one, contraction during each of my two daily monitoring sessions (which doesn't mean I'm having zero throughout the day, but that's another story), which is great. But then I'll go a day or two with 5-6 during each monitoring session, which is when we start moving doses around. Most of the contractions aren't painful, but they are fairly uncomfortable. What's more painful is that I have a lot of cramping all of the time, which wakes me up a lot too, but even the increases in basal rate have helped that, so it's likely that the cramping is low-level contractions that don't really register as contractions themselves on the monitor (if they're less than 40-seconds, they don't call them contractions). See, and here I thought I got pregnant to avoid being plagued by painful menstrual-like cramps. Sigh.

The really astoundingly good news is that bed rest certainly seems to be doing its job, which is good because I really, really don't want to be admitted to the hospital just now. Each appointment that I've had since that first alarming appointment where my cervix had gone down to 1.5cm has shown definite improvement in cervical length. I didn't even know that could really happen. My last appointment, on Monday, it was, at its shortest, 2.8cm. Go me! This has also enabled me to return to weekly appointments instead of twice-weekly appointments, which is good, because with S dealing with shiva, I wouldn't have wanted to abandon him too often.

What really astounds me is that I remember my first appointment with the perinatologist was at 8 weeks, 5 days, and this week's appointment was 25 weeks, 5 days. 17 weeks have passed, but it feels like a lifetime ago. 17 weeks ago, I didn't even have a clear idea whether all three were going to make it. 17 weeks ago I didn't even know if it made more sense to consider a reduction and I was getting tremendous pressure in all directions to reduce. 17 weeks ago, I finally walked into an office that didn't say my only option was to reduce the triplets. 17 weeks ago I had no idea if I was making the right choice, but today I have no question that I made the right choice. I didn't know then if these little monsters had any chance of making it, but now, I have little doubt they will, though I have no idea what issues they'll be facing on the other side. 17 weeks ago, I was in despair... yesterday, I was conspiring with Jess to create a baby registry, something I couldn't possibly have contemplated even a month ago, let alone 17 weeks ago.

I remember clearly the day that it became obvious that I was attached to these little monsters. I blogged about it, even. April 19th. That's when I realized it was okay to be attached to these little parasites... the little parasites I was still too terrified to refer to as babies. Now I often refer to them as babies, but I can't remember when that shift took place. What I do know is that shift wasn't insignificant. I never thought I'd call a baby a baby until it was born. I never thought I could bear having that level of attachment before it was a "sure thing". But here I am, with three babies kicking me regularly, and that's what they are to me... alternately babies and monsters (in the most endearing way possible, of course).

But I digress. Back to how I'm doing.

Contractions... today not bad, tomorrow, we'll see. Check.
Cervical length... getting better, apparently bed rest works. Check.

Babies (!)... They are terrific. I haven't had a growth ultrasound since the 11th, but will have another on Monday, so I'll know more then, but they've all got perfect heartbeats, plenty of amniotic fluid, and they're all quite active, so there don't appear to be any serious concerns in that regard. Or minor concerns, for that matter. The one seriously annoying thing is that as of Monday, they had all turned breach. Even Baby A who has been head down for MONTHS! I know they all have PLENTY of time to turn right back around, but I'm bitter. Bit-ter, I tell you! They'd better move back around and fast. One good thing about it, though, is that Dr. M. thinks that it's possible that part of the reason my cervix lengthened again this week was because the pressure had been taken off of it with the baby's head not constantly pushing down on it, so I guess I can't entirely complain. At first with them all turning around I couldn't feel them moving much, but I think they must have shifted somewhat again, because now Baby A is most decidedly kicking me directly in the cervix on a regular basis, which is more painful than head-butting and honestly, more painful (and more persistent) than punching. So I'm not loving that. But the other two must also have shifted somewhat, because I can feel them fighting with each other again. I doubt that they've turned all the way around again already, but they've definitely moved somewhat since Monday.

Next Monday, they'll do another fetal fibronectin test, talk to me more about steroid shots (though they're still trying to put those off until at least 30 weeks if possible), and they'll do the 1-hour glucose tolerance test. Yum. I wish I could just skip to the 3 hour, since I'm at such a high risk for gestational diabetes in the first place (triplet pregnancy, PCOS, overweight to begin with...), but it's all good. Hopefully it won't be an issue and I'll only have to do this once. They will also, as I said, do the growth ultrasound on the babies, so it will be a long appointment, which is fine with me, because it's the one excursion out of the house that I'm allowed.

The current bane of my existence is that I have a nasty cold, which I think is just adding insult to injury, and I'm quite bitter about it, but hoping that it will be short-lived. I hate colds because they are utterly miserable, but they are "just colds" so you can't really complain about them without being a big whiner. Unless you're pregnant with triplets, in which case, I think you're perfectly justified in whining about basically anything. At least, that's MY excuse!

And that's where things are right now. I'm slowly catching up on blogs. I haven't been purposely ignoring anyone, it's just that things have been a bit crazy with everything going on between my dramarama and my husband's father's death. So hopefully things will calm down soon A girl can dream, right? Today my big plans are to be able to take a nap at some point.